


Always

by Bohemian (Linguam)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Loves Magnus Bane, Emotional, Episode: s03e22 All Good Things..., Fluff, Immortal Alec Lightwood, M/M, Magnus Bane Loves Alec Lightwood, Missing Scene, Sappy, hint at - Freeform, wedding vows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 18:38:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19068367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Linguam/pseuds/Bohemian
Summary: When Magnus reads Alec’s last suggestion for their shared wedding vows, the hummingbird beat of his heart is shocked into complete and utter stillness.I am, and will always be, your loving husband.Always.





	Always

**Author's Note:**

> This might very well be one of the sappiest things I've ever written. Beware of cavities.
> 
> I 100% blame Todd for this.

When Magnus reads Alec’s last suggestion for their shared wedding vows, the hummingbird beat of his heart is shocked into complete and utter stillness.

_I am, and will always be, your loving husband._

Always.

He knows what Alec means. Their “always” may not stretch for the same length of time, but the sentiment remains the same. Alec will never love anyone other than Magnus, will never marry anyone else, and if there is such a thing as an afterlife, Alec will love him there, too. That’s what he means and, truly, it’s enough, is _more_ than enough.

And yet, Magnus’s tongue curdles around the word.

“Magnus?”

He blinks, startled by the wetness dampening the back of his eyelids.

“Hey.” Alec crouches next to where Magnus sits by the desk, his frowning face coming into view. A warm hand cups Magnus’s cheek. “What is it? You okay?”

Magnus clears his throat. He attempts a smile that feels too wobbly to warrant the name.

“Of course.” He reaches out, straightens the collar of Alec’s shirt. “How could I not be? By this time tomorrow, I’ll be able to call you my husband.”

Alec’s frown only deepens.

“Is it what I wrote? We don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.”

His voice is earnest, no trace of judgment or disappointment, but that’s not what makes the breath stumble in Magnus’s lungs. There is a calm steadfastness written in the line of Alec’s shoulders, in the evenness of his breathing, that tells Magnus without words that Alec won’t ask him to explain himself. If it makes Magnus uncomfortable, for whatever reason, it’s not going in their vows, and that’s that.

Magnus shakes his head, swallowing.

“It’s a beautiful vow, Alexander.” And it _is._ The sentiment is candid, and heartfelt, like Alec’s declarations always are. Magnus is being ridiculous for no reason.

Perhaps he can blame his sentimentality on exhaustion. The last couple of days have been rather trying, after all.

“Magnus.” Alec’s expression softens into that odd combination of gentle and sincere that only he can pull off. “I meant what I said in Edom. I’m never leaving you again.” His thumb caresses Magnus’s cheek. “Not ever.”

“Alexander…” That hummingbird is picking itself up again, flapping its tiny wings against his ribcage. Longing lies heavy and aching on his tongue alongside an almost frenzied denial, because Alec doesn’t mean- he can’t mean what Magnus’s too-tired brain and too-frayed emotions think he means.

_No one ever stays._

A sigh pushes through Alec’s nose, drawn-out and a little sad. But Alec’s eyes on Magnus are calm and patient, a little exasperated: as if he’s waiting for Magnus to accept what, to him, is a simple and perfectly sound conclusion.

“You want to stay.” The words slip out unbidden, wrenched from his nine-year-old self, lost and fearful and alone—all of those ugly insecurities bared in the gentle golden light of early morning.

No one ever stays, not permanently. Not in all of his centuries. It just doesn’t happen.

He should know by now to always expect the unexpected when it comes to one Alexander Gideon Lightwood.

“Yes.” The word, spoken like a vow, the most revered truth, buries itself under Magnus’s skin, trickles through his soul like a cup of tea on a dreary autumn afternoon, seeping into the cracks and soothing the hard edges of life’s many cruel lessons.

“I’m staying,” Alec says, and Magnus tries to detect any traces of doubt, of uncertainty, but the eyes that meet his are clear. Sure. “For as long as you’ll have me, I’m yours.”

Magnus knows that having an eternal life doesn’t automatically translate into being capable of loving someone for eternity, because, while he may be immune to the physical proof of time’s passing, love is not. Love is finite. Mortal. It doesn’t last forever.

“I don’t know how yet,” Alec says, the way an inventor might say _I don’t know how yet, but don’t worry, I’ll figure it out._ “But we’ll find a way. You and me.”

Love isn’t immortal, or at least it hadn’t been. Until now.

Until Alexander.

Magnus’s fingers close around Alec’s wrist, the hand still cupping his cheek, and he can’t but reciprocate his fiancé’s, his soon-to-be husband’s, smile with one of wonder.

“Okay,” he whispers.

The ground has blown up beneath his feet, but Magnus doesn’t mind the freefall. Not when he knows that Alexander will be there to catch him. Always.

**Author's Note:**

> Now, someone needs to write them actually _writing_ their vows, because I'm dying to know how they decided on what we got on screen!


End file.
